Midsummer dreams in the Florida Keys are made of dolphin catches in the deep blue.
August 21, 2024
By Blair Wickstrom
That big white blimp 10,000 feet above the northern tip of Cudjoe Key? Locals call it Fat Albert. I’ve run under it while staying on Summerland and Big Pine and could see it while fishing from Key West and Marathon. Albert is a Tethered Aerostat Radar System, 175 feet long. He’s changed hands among military and border security branches over the years, keeping a lookout for drug-runners, goings-on in Cuba, and who-knows-what-else. Maybe Air Force brass watching for birds on mahi?
Albert’s a bit of a mystery, but Cudjoe is pretty straightforward. No crowded roads, busy marinas or charterboat row. But, what you do have is a fairly deep, accessible channel to the ocean and/or backcountry, a few good restaurants, a bait-and-tackle store and lots of affordable waterfront home rentals.
When brother-in-law Al Cowan, from St. Petersburg, invited me and my wife to the Keys to fish and dive the second week of August, I said, “Sure. Sign me up.” Then he said, “Find us a place.”
Spiny lobster on the reefs. Cudjoe Key is a nice spot to post up for a week. Having stayed in the Lower Keys several times over the years, I was pretty sure I could find a suitable house to rent. As luck would have it, my search started and ended with my brother Drew.
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Drew had rented a home in the Venture Out community on Cudjoe Key, and he told me some of the best mangrove snapper fishing he did was in the channels right outside of the resort.
Drew said his group went all the way to Key West to charter a boat to snapper fish, but had better luck yellowtail snapper fishing on his own, on the patch reefs in 50 to 70 feet of water due south of Cudjoe Key.
We hit Drew’s numbers (not too secret, judging by the number of boats fishing nearby) and caught some nice yellowtail as well as a feisty 36-inch goliath grouper.
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Most of our week’s vacation was divided between looking for birds, weedlines and dolphin out in blue water, or running north up Kemp Channel into the backcountry hunting lobster.
“Fat Albert” has been watching over Cudjoe Key—and the U.S. southern border—since the late 1970s. Can they see what goes into your fishbox? Better play it safe! (Photo courtesy of Monroe County Library Collection) On three trips offshore, we never had to go farther than 10 miles from the reef to find mahi. No crowds of boats on the weedlines or birds, either—pretty quiet, much like the roads of Cudjoe.
As for lobster diving, I wish we could say we had better luck. We tried the coral heads near Content Key but an algae bloom made visibility a major issue there. To find diveable water, we had to run 18 miles west, which had us north of Key West to find lobster. Hopefully, that won’t be the case this summer.
Hey Albert, how about a visibility report?
Cudjoe Key If You Go Home Rentals : Venture Out, 659 privately owned homes or RV Lots within a condominium association. Marina, fuel, bait and boat ramp on the property. waterfrontkeys.com Fishing Charters : Waypoint Fishing, Capt. Nate Wheeler (305) 394-2177; Tight-n-Up Charters, Capt. Kevin Rowley (305) 393-2618Restaurants: Square Grouper Bar & Grill; Broil Small Island Steakhouse; The Bent Prop Bar and Grill.
